CHAI NAT — The guardian of a eighth-grader at Chainat Pittayakom school has gone full tilt against a videogame shop offering hidden rooms to where youngsters skipping school can hide out and play online.
Children play online games at an outlet in Chon Buri province. (Bangkok Post file photo)
Natthatiya Srisawarng, 23, called for legal action to be taken against the shop - which is owned by a Chainat Pittayakom teacher - after discovering her 12-year-old nephew tucked away in an upstairs room during school hours. She said he has been cutting class to play online games three times a week since last month.
Ms Natthatiya said her nephew was never in trouble at school until a few weeks ago when she learned from his friends that the boy skipped school frequently to spend hours at a game shop only 300 meters from campus. She then searched for, and found, him at a two-storey online game outlet in Soi Suwanna-uthit where he had been a regular customer.
"I took him home and told his father. The boy then promised he would not skip school again," she said. However, a school teacher informed Ms Natthatiya Friday that her nephew had recently often missed class.
She returned to the same shop to look for the boy but did not find him, and a shop employee said the pupil was not there. Ms Natthatiya was about to leave when a vocational-school student tipped her off about two secret gaming rooms at the back of the shop, one on each floor. She found the 12-year-old in the upstairs room along with several other children in school uniform.
Ms Natthatiya said the young patrons were advised to walk through the shop's kitchen, take off their shoes and hide them in their school bags so that no one could see the operator allowed minors under 15 to use the services during prohibited periods.
She said her nephew and his friends told her that the outlet was operated by a Thai-language teacher at their school.
Ms Natthatiya said she was very surprised that a teacher had made money off students by encouraging them to play online games. She wanted authorities to investigate the allegation against a teacher at Chainat Pittayakom school and check on the game shop and other illegally-operated outlets in the district.